page_title: Philip Robert Presants
section_title: Christchurch years
hierarchical_section_title: Philip Robert Presants / Christchurch years
caption_attribution_description: Presants, Philip Robert, 1867-1942: New Zealand Shipping Co. Ltd. Calendar 1899. Ref: Eph-F-SHIP-1899. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22830327
context_page_description: Philip Robert Presants was a chromolithographer, designer and painter in New Zealand. He became Chief Artist of The Press in Christchurch, New Zealand. He was heavily involved in the New Zealand International Exhibition, as a member of the Decorative Committee and the Fine Arts Committee. He also designed the programme booklet and exhibited his own work. He died in 1942 in London.
context_section_description: Presants worked for The Press in Christchurch, New Zealand from about 1898 to 1909 as a chromolithographer and became Chief Artist by 1899. Four promotional photos from this period, held at Alexander Turnbull Library, show Presants at work with the large fine-grained stone blocks he imported from Germany. He printed a calendar for the New Zealand Shipping Company in 1899 and a copy is held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
  Presants was responsible for a series of full-page colour lithographs in the Christmas editions of the Weekly Press ca. 1899–1907. Many of these works depict Māori subjects surrounded by endemic flowers and foliage and are available for inspection at the Alexander Turnbull Library. Although he was best known for his skills in chromolithography he was a designer and painter, working in watercolours and oils. One of his own art works entitled 'Young New Zealand at play: cricket in a mining town' was used as a colour supplement to The Press in 1899.
  Presants' contribution to the emerging consciousness of New Zealanders is discussed in a PhD thesis by Cathy Tuato'o Ross. Ross concludes her review of Presants' contribution with the following statement: "Presants’ contribution to the newspaper and to the visual culture of the time was a model of professional excellence, working with and adapting established design and thematic conventions in a New Zealand context."
  Philip was involved with the Canterbury Jubilee Exhibition of 1900–1901 for which he designed the certificates, including an award presented to T.J. Edmonds, later known for the Edmonds Cookery Book. Oral tradition records that Presants was the designer of the cover of the iconic second edition of the cookery book, published in 1910. Presants had a larger role in the organisation of the International Exhibition (1906) in Christchurch. He served as a member of the Decorative Committee and the Fine Arts Committee. Presants prepared the watercolour illustrations for the exhibition booklet, available for inspection at the Alexander Turnbull Library. He also exhibited some of his own work as a graphic artist.
  After retiring from The Press in 1909, Presants worked out of his own studio in High St, Christchurch, 1912–1919, before moving to Belmont, Lower Hutt. During this period, he applied for a patent for a "container, folding or collapsible".
caption: Presants, Philip Robert, 1867–1942: New Zealand Shipping Co. Ltd. Calendar 1899. Ref: Eph-F-SHIP-1899. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22830327
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